Kate McCann told MPs that she felt “totally out of control” and “unable to function” in the days after the disappearance of her three-year-old daughter on holiday in Portugal in 2007.

Addressing members of a Commons committee investigating the handling of missing persons cases, Mrs McCann – a GP by profession – called for all parents in her position to be given psychological support.

She also hit out at officialdom for the “unbearable, bordering on inhumane” way she and her husband Gerry had been dealt with, being “left in the dark” about the progress of the search for daughter.

Burglary victims often received better support than parants of missing children, she added.

The couple had been forced to “fight, really fight” for the authorities to take up the search again after the case was shelved by Portuguese police three years ago, she added.

In a wide-ranging hearing, two senior police officers also admitted there are failings in the way police handle missing persons cases.

It followed evidence from Mrs McCann and two other mothers who agreed that families were desperate for psychological support and were often left with no point of contact within the police at crucial moments.

Nicki Durbin, whose son, Luke, 19, went missing four years ago, told of her "terror" at hearing about the discovery of a decapitated body on the local news, fearing it was her son, but had no one to call find out more.

Mrs McCann told the committee that she had been lucky that her tour operator had flown a trained crisis counsellor out to help the couple.

“I can't overestimate how much of a difference that made, we are [both] medically trained but we couldn't function,” she said

“The sense of helplessness is overwhelming, it is an incredibly unpleasant sensation, it’s hard to describe.

“Our counsellor helped me start taking control of things I could control.

“It was probably the first time in my life where I felt totally out of control.”

She added: "If your house is burgled, you are automatically offered victim support with emotional, practical and legal assistance.

"If your child goes missing, you may get nothing."

Assistant Chief Constable Phil Thompson of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told the hearing that guidance for police was “cluttered” and inaccessible and was “crying out” for a national strategy.

“That isn’t work well enough and we have to do better,” he admitted.

Chief Constable Nick Gargan, the chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), said: "There wouldn't be a police officer in this country who wouldn't change the way they deal with missing persons if they'd listened to the evidence session I've just listened to."